Letter: Planning for Fall River's waste disposal

The city of Fall River is facing loss of revenue and higher waste disposal costs when the landfill is closed later this year.

The long-term outlook is really bad. Available landfill sites are filling up, and the state has a moratorium on the construction of new incinerators. Transfer stations can only send recyclables to material recovery facilities. All mixed waste can only be sent to landfills or incinerators.

The city of Fall River is facing loss of revenue and higher waste disposal costs when the landfill is closed later this year.

The long-term outlook is really bad. Available landfill sites are filling up, and the state has a moratorium on the construction of new incinerators. Transfer stations can only send recyclables to material recovery facilities. All mixed waste can only be sent to landfills or incinerators.

The best way to reduce cost is to reduce the volume of waste. And one promising way to reduce volume is the proposed bottle bill update, an initiative cleared to be on the 2014 ballot. Tom Menino, mayor of Boston when the initiative was approved, said passage would "save cities and towns money at a time when we need it most."

The proposal would require a 5-cent deposit on containers of non-carbonated beverages, water, iced tea, juice and sport drinks. Currently, only 23 percent of these containers are recycled, compared to 80 percent recycling of deposit containers.

This difference may not seem important, but it is striking when we consider the number of containers that would go from waste disposal to recycling. More than 3 billion, 300 million beverage bottles are sold in Massachusetts every year.

But passage of the initiative is not assured. A bill has been filed in the legislature, S.379, which would repeal the bottle bill, do away with all deposits, and instead add a 1-cent tax on all containers. It is proposed to go in effect on July 1 of this year, and would clearly result in an increase in municipal waste and litter, at added cost to cities and towns. For Fall river, it would add to the financial problems resulting from closing of the landfill.

Chain supermarkets, bottlers and beer brewers are lobbying for S.379. Our city and town officials need to join together in opposition to this bill, and in favor of the expanded bottle bill. This should be crucial step one in planning for the landfill closure.